The team behind NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took time out from exploring the Red Planet today to answer some questions on Reddit as part of the website's "Ask Me Anything" series.

A dozen members of Team Curiosity, including "mohawk guy" Bobak Ferdowski, fielded questions about everything from the rover's lackluster processing power to their favorite movies.

When NASA unveiled the specs for Curiosity, many were surprised to find that the average smartphone probably has more processing power than the rover.

Jonny Grinblat, an avionics system engineer, admitted as much today, saying that a look under the hood reveals some technology that might seem "ancient" by today's standards.

"The reasoning for this is three-fold," he wrote. "First of all, the computer was selected about 8 years ago, so we have the latest and greate[st] space certified parts that existed then. Second of all, it was the most robust and proven space grade processor at that time. Thirdly, in order to make a processor radiation hardened it requires lots of tricks on the silicon that is not conducive to making it fast."

"Given that, it does not run any GUIs and can just focus on raw programming, and actually gets a lot done," Grinblat continued. "All of the programming is done in C, and our toolchain is very similar to programming on any platform."

Curiosity is not exactly breaking any speed records on Mars. Her top speed is about 0.09 miles per hour, primarily because she "has to use parts that work in extreme environments," Grinblat said.

"When we first drive, it will not be at full speed just to make sure that things work correctly," he said. "Our top speed is 4cm/sec on flat hard ground. Fortunately, there are lots of interesting things to see along the way, so there will be frequent stops."

At this point, the team is operating on Mars time in order to best keep tabs on Curiosity. As a result, they shift their schedule ahead 40 minutes per day. "It is a bit painful ... we re-program our alarm clocks every day," they said.

At this point, there are 250 scientists and about 160 engineers running the Curiosity operation.

Curiosity actually rests during the night to recharge her batteries and drives during the day to take advantage of the light. There are no lights on Curiosity. "But what if the life-form only comes out at night?" quipped one Reddit user.

In the morning, Curiosity gets a wake-up call just like the astronauts on the International Space Station. Selections have included Frank Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me," the theme from Star Wars, and "Good Morning, Good Morning" by the Beatles.

For those wondering what Curiosity sees when she looks in the sky, NASA said the rover will soon capture "Earthrise" pictures of our planet, as well as other constellations, with Mastcam.

Other tidbits from today's chat:

When asked for a cool Curiosity trivia fact, Surface systems' Eric Blood said "It's got a friggin' laser on its head, that can VAPORIZE rock!"

The team built Curiosity while wearing full-body "bunny suits" in order not to transfer any Earth-borne microbes to the rover. "We don't want to go looking for building blocks of life only to find we brought it with us," said Steve Sell, deputy operations lead for EDL.

When asked if it would be possible to take a sample from Mars and bring it back to Earth, the team said it's possible but would take "intense concentration." Similarly, the idea of bringing the Spirit and Opportunity rovers back to Earth "isn't too far-fetched," said Aaron Stehura, an EDL systems engineer. "Astronauts from Apollo 12 brought back a camera from the robotic Surveyor 3 lunar lander, which is now in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Let's hope we can bring some pieces of Spirit and Opportunity back home for everyone to see!"

When asked if there were any surprises, Stehura said the team didn't expect the size of the pebbles on the deck of the rover. It's not a problem, but they only expected dust.

Flight director Steve Collins, aka "Hippy Guy," said the comparison to Brent Spiner in Independence Day was "very flattering."

Mac or PC? In the room where the Reddit Q&A was taking place, the team counted 12 Macs and three PCs.

Redditors were quick to point out that in the team group shot (above), power/pyro systems engineer Rob Zimmerman had his "McKayla is not impressed" face on. Mohawk Guy responded that he "showed this to the room and we laughed for about 5 minutes. AWESOME."

About the Author

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships a... See Full Bio

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